Whatever the 2010 Formula One season holds in the way of drama, scandal, and controversy, there will be one point of genuine interest, and that is whether Michael Schumacher can still cut it.
Schumacher is the ideal yardstick. He retired on top of his game and there was no driver who was physically or mentally more strong. At 41, he will be the oldest driver on the grid, but will still be younger than Fangio when he won four of his championships. Niki Lauda took two years off and won third time out on his return, but that was more than a quarter of a century ago and the sport has become more intense.
There used to be a TV format called “Superstars.” In the BBC version, you had six sportsmen and six sporting events. Each contestant took part in five events, dropping the one closest to his own discipline. Brian Henton, who had won the 1980 European Formula Two Championship, was invited.
Brian recalls, “Being a racing driver, I have an angle, so after I arrived I somehow had an ‘injury’ and couldn’t take part. They gave me a later date and I stayed on to ‘support’ the others. I came away with a list of events and the times to aim for.
“I bought myself a bike and kayak and went into training. I could easily beat all the times, but I had overlooked one thing, the Olympic Games. When it was my turn again, the real athletes were there. I could not believe these guys.
“In the canteen I’d be lining up for my steak and chips, don’t mind extra beans, Love, and these guys would be with their trainers, selecting the perfect lettuce leaf.” Brian was drubbed, yet he would have been king in most people’s local gym.
I guess it was Niki Lauda who first employed a personal coach who had some scientific background, and some people thought he was eccentric. Most drivers kept reasonably fit by playing tennis or golf, regular things, while some thought that a grueling regime was not to have too bad a hangover on race day.
It may have been Porsche at Le Mans in the late 1970s that was the first team to take the health of its drivers seriously. Apart from the high-energy diet, there were the medical checks, showers, masseurs, and somewhere comfortable to relax between stints.
In the early 1980s I wrote a piece for a magazine about the preparation of two drivers entered in the RAC Rally. The professional concentrated on himself. He had little exercise gizmos, like a spring-loaded hand grip, and he had disconnected the power steering on his road car.
The enthusiastic amateur had no time to think of himself. He had wanted an Opel Manta, saw one in a car park, and left a note on the windscreen. That was the start of his campaign; he then had to get the car prepared, doing as much of the work himself as he possibly could while holding down a day job.[pullquote]
“I guess it was Niki Lauda who first employed a personal coach who had some scientific background, and some people thought he was eccentric. Most drivers kept resonably fit by playing tennis or golf, while some thought that a grueling regime was not to have too bad a hangover on race day.”
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In 1978, Derek Warwick came good in Formula Three and one of his tweaks was that someone else drove the truck. In 1981, Derek was in F1 with Toleman and I was interviewing him in a radio studio. Before we went on the air he asked me not to mention his eyebrows. He had singed them welding agricultural trailers in the family business. He felt that welding trailers was not really the image a Formula One driver should have, though I gave him full marks for not forgetting how he got into F1.
One thing that Schumacher has to face that Lauda did not, is a restriction on testing. It is to cut costs, but it is unfair for reserve drivers who get promoted to race seats, and it is dangerous. A rookie needs cockpit time and it should not be beyond the wit of the FIA to provide it without improvement-testing taking place.
Jenson Button has long been popular at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. In 2009 he was leading the World Championship and he was at the Festival and so was Brawn GP, with a static display. Jenson could not drive a Brawn up the hill because that would have counted as Formula One testing.
Everyone else could drive a 2008 F1 car, but Brawn was only of 2009. It is the shortest-lived marque that has won a Grand Prix. The DNA is Tyrrell, BAR, and Honda, but Brawn has ceased to exist because it is now Mercedes-Benz, the all-German team based in Northamptonshire.
Mercedes-Benz has a history of comebacks, look at Hermann Lang who went 14 years between Grands Prix. Lang was the outstanding driver of 1939 but, as a German national, he was banned from international competition until 1950, and competed in only two World Championship races. He was 5th in the 1953 Swiss GP in a Maserati, and was holding 2nd to teammate Fangio in the 1954 German GP, when he spun.
The reason, put out by Mercedes-Benz, was driver error. The late Bill Mason was editing a film archive from the race, and I know from him that Lang’s M-B W196 had a seized transmission. It was not driver error, in fact he had been driving a magnificent race.
I also know that Rudi Caracciola crashed because of mechanical failure at Bern in 1952, a front wheel locked solid on his 300SL. It was not driver error, though that was the official story. Can you guess which German car company owns the film archive that Bill Mason was editing?
Mercedes-Benz looked after drivers who didn’t make waves. Lang was given a job in the museum while Caracciola demonstrated road cars to GIs. Somehow I do not think a job will need to be found for Schumacher when he finally quits. I guess he will also not agree to “driver error” if something breaks on the car.
No matter how it goes, his return is going to be interesting,
